The following can be requested by a faculty member upon approval of Associate Dean.
- Merge Courses (Previously referred as cross-listing. More about this below.)
- Grant/Revoke Access to a Course
- Request a Development Course (DEV), Sandbox Site (SBX), Primary Course (PMR), Academic Division Course (ADR), and Faculty Staff Training Course (FAC)
- Extend Access to a Course (Once processed, this request will extend the access date of the Blackboard to all students in the roster.)
What is merge?
When an instructor is assigned to multiple sections of the same course, it may be convenient for the instructor to merge the sections. The graphic below illustrates the idea of merging. In this example, an instructor has three sections of the same course. By requesting to merge three courses (Child course 1, Child course 2 and Child course 3), the courses will be as shown in the illustration. As a result, an empty parent course is created. The name of the parent course starts with XL, and we also call it an XL site.
Once a merge is complete, the instructor will see the XL site in Blackboard. The instructor will no longer access the individual course sections (child courses). Students will continue to see the original name of the registered course section but will have access to the content of the XL site.
Note: XL site will be created with no content. It is the instructor’s responsibility to add content to the newly-created XL site.
Pros and Cons of merging courses:
PROS: No need to upload content in each section, and able to manage multiple sections of students in one Parent course (XL site).
CONS: Course enrollment from all sections/child courses are merged together into one; there is no indication in Blackboard as to which students belong to which section. (You can find this information in My Humber/Banner.)
How to request a merge
1. Have the email address of your Associate Dean who approved your request ready.
2. Locate CRN, course code, and section of the courses you want to merge.
3. Complete the LMS Blackboard Ultra Admin Request form on the IL Support Centre website to request a merge.
Additional information to consider
- It is strongly recommended a merge request be completed before start-up.
- It is highly advised to refrain from adding new content until a merge is complete.
- You can request to add a new section to the existing XL site.
- Upon approval of Associate Dean, you may merge sections taught by different instructors as well.
How to submit other requests (other than merge)
1. Have the email address of your Associate Dean who approved your request ready.
2. Locate CRN, course code, and section of the course you want grant, revoke or extend access.
3. Complete the LMS Blackboard Ultra Admin Request form on the IL Support Centre website to request.
Additional information
- Anyone added from Banner needs to be removed from Banner as well.
- Adding users as an instructor to the current semester live course needs to be completed by the department scheduler. (Do not submit a form to Innovative Learning.)
- All courses are available to students for two weeks following the end date of the course. When you request to extend the access (due to accessibility or other reasons) upon approval of AD, the course access period is extended to all students in the roster.